Welcome to Professional and Technical Services (PTS) – experts in chemical disinfection for infection prevention. Our goal is to educate and provide you the latest resources related to cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces, medical devices and hands. As specialists in disinfectant chemistries, microbiology, environmental cleaning and disinfection, facility assessments and policy and procedure creation we are dedicated to helping any person or facility who uses chemical disinfectants.

Friday, April 28, 2017

I’m hoping there are a few of you who like to shock, awe, or
gross out your family, friends and colleagues.
Juvenile perhaps, but is there anything better than watching people
squirm when regaling a tale? I take
great pleasure in grossing people out by talking about something I find
fascinating, knowing others likely don’t feel the same. By noon today I had was able to hit on 3
different stories – screwworms
in Key Deer, the topic for today’s blog and my Sunfish story (message me if you
want to hear that one!).

I will admit talking about boogers, snot, mucous, and phlegm
is gross. Truthfully, it grosses me out,
but yesterday I came to realize that snot may be our newest superhero friend in
the fight against antibiotic resistance!
According to researchers
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology we may have found a new way of combating problematic pathogens. If we
think of this logically, mucous is everywhere in our body (mouth, eyes, lungs,
nose, digestive tract, etc.) and microbes are also widely found within (e.g.
digestive tract) and on our bodies (e.g. skin flora). By understanding the functions of the slimy
substance we refer to as snot or mucous, the researchers were out to determine
how it works to protect us. It’s not our
next silver bullet for killing, but it seems to be excellent at taming pesky
pathogens.

As the study describes, when looking at two different
bacteria known to compete for dominance in human mouths, synthetic mucous
impacted bacterial populations. They found that when the samples were grown
outside of the synthetic mucous the bacteria known to cause cavities prevailed.
However, when the samples were grown in the presence of the synthetic mucous
the bacteria associated with good oral health prevailed. From this, it would appear that mucous could
be key to maintaining a healthy microbial diversity in other areas of our body. Furthermore, work is being conducted around
the world looking at how and if the synthetic mucous can in fact help control
problematic pathogens both inside and outside of the body.

Perhaps the next time you see someone picking their nose and
wiping it on a surface or hacking up phlegm and spitting it out, while still
gross and generally unacceptable from a social perspective, you’ll wonder how
quickly it tames whatever pathogenic bacteria are present.The possibilities could be endless!Will synthetic snot be our next antimicrobial
surface coating? We’ve gotten over the ick factor of fecal transplantation for C. diff management…perhaps we’ll be
popping phlegm pills in the future!

Either way, I think this is a fascinating topic and look
forward to keeping up with where the research goes!

Friday, April 21, 2017

If you have a car and live in an area where snow is a winter
fact, you likely have winter tires; and with spring arriving, you’ve likely
been to your mechanic to have your winter tires swapped out for your summer
tires. You may also have timed the tire
change with a LOF (Lube-Oil-Filter)
and maybe changed out your windshield wipers.
We understand that when we drive a car we need to do more than just fill
it up with gas. Many of us are also probably
pretty good at our own preventative maintenance plan for our health and well-being with annual physicals, eye checkups, working out, eating and sleeping
right and if you are like me, your preventative maintenance plan also includes
hair appointments, manicures and pedicures!

I would hazard a guess that most of us recognize that
virtually any piece of equipment we use, in order to be effective at our jobs,
also needs preventative
maintenance. We know that with
patient care equipment or other medical equipment this is an important aspect
of protecting the lives of our patients.
How many of you consider the dilution systems we use to dilute
concentrated surface disinfectants or the associated test strips used to
validate the dilution (assuming your facility uses test strips)? The unfortunate truth is that while we now
acknowledge that compliance in cleaning and achieving the contact time as
indicated on the label in order to ensure disinfection occurs are important, we
do not stop to think of other factors that may impact the effectiveness of our
chosen disinfectant.

The one area that we often overlook is the preventative
maintenance required to ensure the dilution systems that we rely on to properly
dilute the disinfectants are working properly.
Over the course of my career in Healthcare, it never ceases to amaze me
that many facilities still fail to consider this. While I will not name facilities I can say
that I have been in more than my fair share of facilities helping brainstorm
why a disinfectant seems to be failing to support the infection control program. When I ask when the last time the dilution
system was serviced and / or validation had been done to ensure it was diluting
properly I often get blank stares….

The importance of preventative maintenance on
dilution systems is not just to ensure that the product dilutes at the
correct concentration to kill the pathogens we’re concerned with, but to also
ensure that it is diluting correctly so that the product is safe to
handle. Case in point is a call recently
received from a facility who realized the product they were using seemed
foamier than normal and a few concerns with skin irritation had been
noted. When looking at the dilution
system they found there was no tip on the syphoning tube meaning more product
than needed was being used. When asked
about the use of test strips the answer was that the strips were not changing
colour. When asked about the expiry date
on the test strips it was determined they have long since expired…

The long and short is that disinfectants must be used in
the dilution specified on the product label as indicated by the
manufacturer. The importance of this is
not just for optimal decontamination, but also for optimal occupational health
and safety of the workers using the disinfectants and the patients who may come
in contact with the disinfectant. I hope
you’ll go check to find out what your preventative maintenance plan for your
dilution systems is – and while you’re at it be sure to check and confirm the
test strips have not expired!

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Do you ever get really excited about something, only to have
the rug pulled out from under you? That
happened to me this week. In scanning
through my e-newsletters and outbreak summaries I came across an article “Ugandan
outbreak of elephantiasis linked to walking barefoot in volcanic soil”. As geeky as I know I’m going to sound,
without reading the article I was giddy and I had already come up with how I
would start the blog by tying in the fact that I HATE sand. I know it’s rather ironic having just gone on
vacation to a beach resort, but I really do HATE sand and assume the same would
be said of volcanic soil. It gets
everywhere and I particularly HATE walking in sand – the feel on the bottom of
my feet, the feel when it gets between my toes…. Ask my husband, me walking on sand is akin to
a cat outdoors walking in snow. You know
that pick foot up and shake before you put it down again? That’s me.

Then I read the article and learned that the elephantiasis
was not being caused by an infectious organism.
It was actually caused from walking on the volcanic soil itself which
has sharp mineral crystals that penetrate the soles of feet and cause
inflammation and pain… There was no tie
in with disinfection of hands, surfaces or devices which is the intent of Talk
Clean To Me…. The rug had been pulled
out from under me.

And then this morning, I came across an article stating that
the first
person for 2017 in New Mexico has died from Hantavirus. While no death from an infectious agent is
funny, I had to chuckle a bit as several years ago I involuntarily acquired a
“bestie” who called concerned about finding a mouse nest in his boat when he
went to launch it in the spring. The
conversation was memorable because it did not just end with one call, but over
a couple of years each spring I would get a call to confirm how to deal with
the newest mouse nest he found to ensure he did not get hantavirus….

Hantaviruses are a group of viruses, carried by rodents,
particularly wild rodents such as deer mice, white-footed mice and several
species of rats. Hantaviruses found in
North, South and Central America, can cause severe respiratory (lung) disease
in humans. They are transmitted to
rodents and humans alike, via both direct contact through bites and via
aerosolization of dust contaminated with rodent droppings, urine or saliva. While human infection concerns exist in
environments where rodents may be, pets and livestock do not have any concerns
with becoming infected with hantavirus.
That said, if you happen to have a pet mouse or rat, you do want to keep
them away from wild rodents to avoid transmission.

If you’re doing any form of spring cleaning – particularly
in a cottage or boat that may have been closed up for the winter, a few key
tips to avoid infection include: wearing rubber gloves when cleaning areas
where rodents may have been, allow the area to air out before entering, wet
surfaces with a disinfectant and avoid sweeping or other activities that raise
a lot of dust. If you’re concerned with
raising dust, then wear a face mask to protect yourself.

Friday, April 7, 2017

Many of you have likely heard the phrase “a
picture is worth a thousand words”. Nothing could be truer than the picture that inspired this week’s
blog. Today we celebrated a milestone
birthday for a man some of us would call a mentor and many of us would call a
friend. As soon as I took the picture at
lunch I knew it was going to be a muse for this week’s blog. Do I go with the obvious and talk about the
perils of getting older and dealing with a weakened immune system? It would work for a topic as influenza and
several other respiratory
viruses are still widely circulating.
Do I go with the “ick factor” as everyone around our table winced and
wondered about the chance of our colleague getting lice from a hat that has not
likely ever been cleaned and/or disinfected?

I could, but as you know in recent years I have become more
involved with infection control within the animal health industry. I grew up on a farm so livestock and wildlife
have always been a part of my life. It
was like the stars aligned. When I got
back to my desk the first email I saw was one from the US Animal Health
Association with an article on investigating ELK carcasses for disease. EUREKA!
The last several months several of my news feeds have been buzzing over Chronic
Wasting Disease (CWD).

Now do you get the title?
Wasting Disease…..you should be ashamed if you thought otherwise….

Whether you’re in human health or animal human markets, we
have all heard of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE’s) caused by
prions. Mad
Cow Disease (or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) may be the one that many
people recognize due to the epidemic in the late 1980’s in the UK and
subsequent tie to cases of humans diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease.

Chronic wasting disease like BSE or CJD is a progressive,
fatal, degenerative disease of the brain ungulates (elk, mule, deer, and
white-tailed deer). Similar to all
TSE’s, it can be years before an animal shows symptoms. Eventually, the “wasted” animals will exhibit
loss of condition, excessive salivation, trouble swallowing, difficulty judging
distance and changes in behavior. The
exact mechanism of transmission is unclear, but we do know that CWD can spread
from animal to animal and females can pass the disease to their offspring. There is no evidence that CWD can affect other
animals, but to be on the safe side, the WHO advises against allowing any meat
source possibly infected by prions into the human food system.

Regardless of what wasting disease we may come across, the
long and the short of it is that infection prevention is an important aspect of
our lives to keep both humans and animals healthy! If your birthday is coming up, be sure to
celebrate, but think twice before you put a “moose” hat on!